1. Field of the Description
The present invention relates, in general, to projection devices and methods, and, more particularly, to an audio, projection, and mapping system for use in small spaces such as bed rooms or family rooms in private houses, hotel rooms, receptions areas, waiting spaces/rooms, and the like.
2. Relevant Background
The consumer product, toy, entertainment, and guest hosting industries are always searching for new and unique ways to entertain people within their homes or guests and visitors of their facilities. For example, it is common for people in a waiting room or area to be entertained with piped in music or televisions or monitors playing network programming or programming selected for the locale that is being visited by those in the waiting room. In other settings, guests may be able to play a video game such as in a hotel or resort room or to interact with an interactive display on a wall or floor display such as in malls, amusement parks, and airports.
These displays are useful in entertaining the visitors or guests and making the waiting or resting time more enjoyable. However, the public has become accustomed to display or monitor-based entertainment, and audio has been used for over a century to create an experience or desired ambience. As a result, the hosting and entertainment industries including hotels and resorts continue to demand ways to keep their guests happy and to set the experiences they provide apart from the competition. For example, a resort associated with an amusement park may wish to not only provide a comfortable room to their guests but to also provide theme-based entertainment that the guests can interact with and control to provide a memorable stay.
To this end, some resort and hotel owners have looked for ways to turn a room or other space into a visually immersive environment to make the room different from a normal room. In some cases, it may even be desirable to allow use of the room or space for various kinds of play (such as when the resort targets families with children to visit), whereas a conventional hotel room is typically designed nearly to discourage such a use. For example, resort and hotel owners may quickly adopt a technology that turned a guest room into a fantasy environment like a land or space from a favorite movie or television show. In some cases, the guests (e.g., children) may be able to interact and play a game with movie, video game, or other characters such as tag or turn their room into a game environment that they can enter such as to drive a game vehicle (e.g., between a wall and a nearby desk or bed). If the technology is relatively inexpensive and simple to use, it may also become popular for residential use such as in a playroom or a bedroom.